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I Am Belfast
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - British Film Institute Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (12th June 2016). |
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The Film
 “I Am Belfast” (2015) Belfast, Northern Ireland - Granted city status in 1888. The capital city and the largest city in Northern Ireland. Home to a population of more than 300,000. Facts and figures can be listed but the real question that should be asked is Who is Belfast? Filmmaker and Northern Ireland native Mark Cousins introduces us to “Belfast” - personified as a woman the age of 10,000 years young (played by Helena Bereen). As they converse, with Cousins reminiscing about the city where he lived for the first 18 years of his life, and Belfast reacting, examining, and reflecting on the past and present of the city. Gorgeous footage is shown - with images shot by Cousins himself along with additional footage by famed cinematographer Christopher Doyle - of the cityscape such as Victoria Centre as well as the natural surroundings such as Squire’s Hills. Also interspersed are vintage materials - from silent film footage from the turn of the century, interviews with city folk in the 1960s, to newsreel footage from the 1990s. It is impossible to discuss the history of Belfast without talking about the violent unrest of the latter half of the 20th century. The incident of the murder of three Scottish soldiers on March 10th, 1971, the bombing of McGurk’s bar on December 4th, 1971, “Bloody Friday” in which 26 bombs were detonated in an hour’s span across the city on July 21st, 1972. The many horrific incidents during The Troubles which lasted from 1968 until 1998 are still recent memories for the Northern Irish - with more than 3,500 people killed during the period. More than half were civilians. Newsreel footage and documentary footage is used to show the senseless violence that divided the state and struck fear into the everyday lives of people. “I Am Belfast” is a film that shows multiple sides of the city through a poetic visual documentary. It is not a straightforward history of the city and ones looking for a linear chronological documentary will not find it here. The film shows beauty (the nature), the ugliness (abandoned places), the hate (The Troubles), the love (best friends Maud and Rosie), the past (the newsreels), the future (the “Death to Bigotry” scene) and not necessarily in that order. City-themed documentaries have come in various forms - the landmark film “Man with a Movie Camera” (1924) by Dziga Vertov was an abstract montage of Soviet cities with a multitude of cinematic techniques used to create a poetic look at people and cities without a narrative. “Kyo” (1969) directed by Kon Ichikawa was a beautiful montage of the city of Kyoto - with a city quite different from the hustle and bustle of Japanese cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. Director Guy Maddin’s film “My Winnipeg” (2007) was a surrealist documentary about his hometown that only he could create. Director Terence Davies’ “Of Time and the City” (2008) used newsreel footage of Liverpool overlayed with the director’s narration of memories, becoming a tribute to the city and a look back at a lost time. The latter two are quite personal works and like “I Am Belfast”, they were the hometowns of the respective directors, who saw the city with differing eyes than that of people who were not from the area. Interesting is that director Mark Cousins had lived most of his adult life in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has traveled the world though his features such as ”What Is This Film Called Love?” (Mexico), “Here Be Dragons” (Albania), and various places for the 15 hour “The Story of Film”, so returning to Belfast was equally looking at the city with native eyes and also seeing the city from an outsider’s perspective. Much of the people involved in the film were natives of Northern Ireland - star Helena Bereen, composer David Holmes as examples. There were songs used in the film by stars from Northern Ireland - specifically Ruby Murray and Van Morrison. Though the production was not exclusively “Northern Ireland Natives Only”, as the cinematographer Christopher Doyle is Australian, Jónsi & Alex contribute a song and they are from Iceland and America respectively. ”I Am Belfast” is a great personal piece of work that may not be for everyone, but is one to truly appreciate as an artist reflecting on the past and looking toward the future in a very positive way. Note this is a region ALL Blu-ray which can be played on any Blu-ray player worldwide
Video
BFI presents the film in 1080p in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. Using a variety of sources including high definition video and vintage film, the picture quality differs from scene to scene. The high def video scenes look particularly the best as it is a direct transfer from the original digital source, though shots depend on what cameras were used. Wide shots of the landscape look particularly great with colors and clarity. Colors like the golden wall, the white of the salt mountain, the red paint of the remains of McGurk’s bar, and the green hills look very good. Although the grey clouds and dull tones of many of the colors in the city tend to make everything look quite bland at times. The vintage film and video are sources of their time, and some look particularly weak with faded colors, damaged black and white film, and video tape errors. For the vintage portions, they are presented windowboxed in a 1.33:1 ratio within the 1.78:1 frame. As they are archival materials from the vaults, they are not expected to look particularly clean. Overall, the transfer is very good.
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English LPCM 2.0 stereo The soundtrack is available in both 5.1 and 2.0 in lossless audio codecs. The film is very front heavy, with the narration of Cousins and Belfast coming from the front three speakers - left center right in the 5.1 track while the ambient score by David Holmes uses the left right surrounds to accent the narration and visuals. The songs by Ruby Murray and Van Morrison also sound great. There are no instances of audio errors or dropouts in the audio. There are optional English HoH subtitles for the main feature.
Extras
"The Making of I Am Belfast" featurette (13:42) Featuring interview footage and behind the scenes footage, this featurette gives quite a good basic overview of the project in such a short runtime. We can see Cousins working at his desk making note cards (along with a DVD of “The Legend of the Surami Fortress”). Christopher Doyle and Helena Bereen are also interviewed about their roles in the film, and the making of the long crane shot for the “Death to Bigotry” scene is included. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 with no subtitles A Conversation with Mark Cousins (13:57) This is the full unedited interview with Cousins that was partially seen in the “Making Of” featurette. Cousins discusses about why he wanted to make the film, the city of Moscow’s inspiration, his early career in film, and more. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 with no subtitles A Conversation with Helena Bereen (10:43) This is the full unedited interview with Bereen. She talks about her first meeting with Cousins, the emotional points of the film, surreal moments like the geese that appeared, and more. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 with no subtitles A Conversation with Christopher Doyle (10:22) Again, this is the full unedited interview with Doyle, who talks about working with someone that he truly cares about, the use of colors in the film, and more. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 "A Cinematic Walk with Mark Cousins" featurette (18:00) The QFT Belfast’s Film Club produced this short featurette which starts with an interview with Cousins against the “golden wall”, followed by film fans following Cousins on a walking tour of the film’s certain locations. Interesting points include Cousins talking about watching “Herbie Rides Again” in cinema and the Q&A after the film’s screening with audience doing an homage to “Spartacus”. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 with no subtitles Original Trailer (1:33) in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 with no subtitles Booklet Also included is a 16 page booklet which includes the essays “I Am Belfast” by Mark Cousins and ”Bringing It All Back Home” by film critic and historian Ian Christie - also from Belfast. Film credits, extras credits, presentation information, and acknowledgements are also included. That’s all for extras - as good as the content is for the short runtimes, some additional historical context could have made things much more full. Such as newsreel footage of the building of the Titanic in Belfast, or short films in full featuring Belfast would have been welcome. There is no commentary provided, but the film itself is like a running commentary anyway so that may have been overkill. Though that didn’t stop director Wim Wenders by recording a DVD commentary track for ”Tokyo-Ga” when the film already had Wenders narrating the entire film.
Overall
“I Am Belfast” is not a film for everyone. The pacing will be off putting to some, as it jumps around in timeline and places, and some will find the scene of Belfast natives Maud and Rosie to be a sudden jarring scene with their way too frequent use of the F-word, though in well meaning spirits and not in anger. It is not a film that gives answers to history’s questions, nor is it a tourism film. It is a very personal film that is quite difficult to explain, and therefore is better to be experienced rather than to be explained about.
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